Forthcoming Book
Pending publication 2025
Foreword (book excerpt)
Immigration is a compelling thrust and enduring paradox of American life and governance. Our nation’s history has been spurred by those arriving and settling on our shores, in our heartland, rural outskirts, and inner cities. Lesser Americans have resisted with vitriol and ruthlessness these “aliens” migrating here to live and attain citizenship. Some machinate the idea of “remigration,” deportation of non-whites back to country of origin regardless of legal status. Greater Americans have received these “strangers” with openness and expectation, thus swelling the denotation of “American.” All Americans should summon their own generational stories of once being outlanders and empathize with war refugees, asylum seekers, and those fleeing poverty and hopelessness…
My father was a teenager who ventured alone to America to make a felicitous life in a new homeland. This book is a tribute to the perseverance of all those pursuing identity and place in America as seen through my father’s absorbing journey…
Immigrants, like my father, were lured to America and oftentimes exploited. Today, those seeking entry, unless recruited by mega corporations, technologic or scientific industries, universities, or governments, are frequently met with derision. Undocumented residents are termed “illegal” and excoriated as rapists, traffickers, and gangsters. Likewise, they are incriminated for unemployment among American citizens…Rather than spotlighting the avarice of employers who prey on the undocumented, and who set wage standards, immigrants are cast as the culprits who scourge the (white) American worker.
My father emigrated from Kochi, Shikoku, Japan in 1924, arriving in Seattle/Tacoma and then worked as a migrant farmworker through Washington, Oregon, and California. Contemporaneously, he was renamed from his birthname of “Masanobu” to “Frank” and then to “George” for the convenience of white overseers. In his elder years, he legalized Frank Masanobu Ogawa. This episodic “reidentification” subsumed his Japanese heritage under a white society rubric but did not facilitate approval as an American. It was a tendentious “embellishment” that could be affixed or detached as the Issei (Japanese immigrants) lived in the half-light of being Japanese and American…In historical, political, social, and cultural context, this book tells of my father’s striving toward a finer life in America.
Cesario Garcia, LCMSW is a social worker with the Cowlitz Tribal Health in Seattle/Tacoma. He is a graduate of the Morita Therapy Certificate Program at Washburn University under Dr. Brian Ogawa and now an advanced trainee of Dr. Peg LeVine of the Classic Morita Therapy Institutein Melbourne, Australia.
“Indigenous Animistic Belief Systems and Integrated Science: Perspective on Humans’ Relationship with Nature and the Coronavirus Pandemic”
Cesario Garcia
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=ije
Abstract
This paper explores some perspectives of indigenous animistic belief systems from researchers who have made observations while studying amongst North American tribes. Specifically, it will address indigenous interactions with the natural world and, in particular, their belief that humans are a part of nature. Next, other perspectives, not rooted in Indigenous belief systems, will be discussed that demonstrate how other cultures and individuals across the globe also view humans as a part of nature, including concepts found in Morita Therapy (Morita, 1928), Arne Naess’ (1987) theory of the ‘ecological self’, and nations around the world that are implementing policies that address ecological crises. Furthermore, the paper will address how a conditional love relationship with nature might lead to humans focusing on the ‘good’ aspects of nature while wanting to eradicate the ‘bad,’ such as COVID-19, through necessary, but also short-term solutions. Finally, long-term solutions based in ecological sciences will be discussed that promote a responsible interconnected relationship with nature in order to prevent, or at least mitigate, the impacts of future epidemics and pandemics.
Recommended Books on Morita Therapy
Desire for Life summarizes key therapeutic goals and methods for applying Morita Therapy for counseling persons experiencing severe anxiety-related disorders, including general anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, phobias, post-traumatic stress, and hypochondria. This book is a concise and authoritative primer for those who want to incorporate Morita Therapy into their professional practice or teaching of Eastern counseling approaches. The hallmarks of Morita Therapy are natural holistic well-being, ecological/contextual healing, and integrative intervention.
Order at www.xlibris.com/Bookstore, Amazon.com, or www.barnesandnoble.com
Walking on Eggshells is a Morita Therapy primer in the field of addressing domestic violence. No woman should live in fear or be subjected to violent behavior. Walking on Eggshells describes the feelings experienced by many women in abusive relationships. Now, these women have a guide for reclaiming their lives. This book provides positive, practical, and sensitive counsel for women seeking to respond to physical or psychological abuse.
Order at https://www.kendallhunt.com/ogawa
A River To Live By describes the twelve life principles of Morita Therapy that form the powerful currents to create a purposeful lifeway energized with spontaneity and infused with gratitude. Originating in traditional Eastern philosophy and modern Japanese psychiatry, these principles have been adapted to be truly transcultural, timeless, and universal. The reader will be introduced to a strong and sound passage through life's major challenges and day-to-day responsibilities.
Order at www.xlibris.com/bookstore or Amazon.com
Routledge 2018
From the Introduction: "Morita therapy is perhaps the only reliable mental health treatment in the world designed deliberately to bring clients inside the rhythm of our natural environment...An overriding aim of this book is to unearth the essence of Morita therapy and the range of human experiences it addresses. Shoma Morita (1874-1938) designed the therapeutic milieu deliberately to advance his paradoxical and experiential method of therapy. These pages pull Morita's practice back to its bare bones to illustrate the eco-biopsychosocial stimuli that advance wellness."
Peg LeVine, Ph.D., Ed.D. is a clinical psychologist and medical anthropologist.